The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to bearings, and more specifically, rotary and/or rolling element bearings.
Conventional bearings utilized, for example, to provide relative rotational movement between two or more objects (e.g., rotary bearings) are typically fabricated from materials having properties suitable to withstand stresses imposed on the bearing in a desired application. For example, materials exhibiting high hardness and/or toughness, for example, such as steel alloys, ceramics or the like, are conventionally utilized to fabricate one or more components of the bearings. However, the inventors have observed that in applications where components of the bearings are exposed to increased stresses (e.g., high Hertzian contact stresses), for example, aircraft or aerospace applications, such conventional materials display unacceptable amounts of deformation and/or degradation, thereby resulting in failure of the bearing.
Therefore, the inventors have provided an improved bearing having components fabricated from a ceramic matrix composite.